Word.ws English Dictionary

Iapetus

/aɪˈæpɪtəs/

Iapetus proper noun: a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia, and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius. Also the alternative form of Japheth.

iapetus: a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia, and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius
Image: NASA (Cassini probe), Matt McIrvin (image mosaic), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

Iapetus

  1. (Greek) A Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia, and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius.
  2. A moon in Saturnian system, Solar System: The third largest moon of Saturn
    • We were unable to see enough on Saturn's moon Iapetus to really understand why that moon has one bright hemisphere and one dark.1990 August, Bradford A. Smith, “Voyage of the Century”, in National Geographic, volume 178, number 2, page 55
  3. A former ocean between former continent of Laurentia (North America) and former continent of Baltica (Europe): An ancient ocean which existed between 600 and 400 million years ago.
    • So, in the early Ordovician, Iapetus was wide enough to have one side in high latitudes and the other in the tropics: a massive ocean, indeed.2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 184
    Synonyms:
    Proto-Atlantic, Proto-Atlantic Ocean

Also used as

Iapetus is also the alternative form of Japheth.

Synonyms of Iapetus

  • Proto-Atlantic
  • Proto-Atlantic Ocean

Forms of Iapetus

alternative formJapetus

Origin of Iapetus

From Latin Iapetus, from Ancient Greek Ἰαπετός (Iapetós), possibly from Pre-Greek. * (moon): Named after the titan. * (ocean): The Iapetus Ocean was the predecessor to the Atlantic Ocean, so this name was chosen because Iapetus is the father of Atlas (see Atlantic).

Words formed from Iapetus

  • Iapetian
  • Iapetus Ocean
  • Iapetus Ridge
  • Iapetus Suture

Questions about Iapetus

What does Iapetus mean?
Iapetus means a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia, and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius.
What part of speech is Iapetus?
Iapetus is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Iapetus?
Iapetus is pronounced /aɪˈæpɪtəs/.

Words near Iapetus in the dictionary

  1. Ianus
  2. IANYL
  3. IAP
  4. Iapetian
  5. Iapetic
  6. Iapetus
  7. IAPH
  8. Iapheth
  9. Iapodes
  10. Iaponia
  11. IAPs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Iapetus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Iapetus.wav.

Cite this entry: “Iapetus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/iapetus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.